God's Great Provision

Ever since we brought sweet Hannah home from China, I (Matt) have been promising myself to post about God’s great provision in Hannah’s adoption process.  God showed up in big ways, and I want to give Him the praise and glory He deserves.  Now that we are just days away from starting to raise the funds necessary to bring Maelee home, I finally have a deadline.  In the interest of transparency, and with great gratitude for all of you who contributed money and prayers for our ministry, I am writing this post tonight.  If you contributed to one of our adoptions in the past, know that we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! - Psalm 105:1.

Back in October of 2014, Deanna and I submitted an application to start the process of adopting Micah.  That time was filled with so many emotions.  The excitement of travelling to China mixed with fear what we would find there.  The great joy of knowing we would rescue a child from institutionalization mixed with the stress of preparing our family for our new addition.  And then there was the dread of the financial obligation … $25,000.

We were told by one saint in our church “God funds what he favors” and by another “God will provide what you need and just a little more.”  Those words did little to calm my anxiety at the time.  After all, how do you ever really know?  The answer I found is simple: You walk the walk in faith, obediently putting one foot in front of the other.  While you do this, you pray and cry out to God.  And then, when the journey is over, you look back at all God has accomplished in your life.  With this newfound perspective you marvel and you give Him the glory He deserves.

When it was all said and done, we were able to raise all of the money we needed ($12,500) and just a little bit more ($45).  We never had to take out a long-term loan or credit obligation.  God was good to us.  He did a great and mighty work in that adoption and reaffirmed to us something we already knew but chose to ignore many times.  God is in charge of our finances.

When we decided to adopt a second time, the amount we needed to raise was even more since we had depleted our savings account for Micah’s adoption.  For Hannah, we figured we needed about $16,500.  No certainties existed and we wondered if people who supported us last time would step up again.  Yet, the anxiety that filled our hearts during the last adoption was replaced with eager anticipation.  This time we were excited to see how God would provide us.  We were excited to give God glory for the mighty work he was about to do.

Here are a few examples of how God provided for Hannah’s adoption above and beyond the money that people donated.

·       Additional Tax Refund

o   Totally unexpected … turns out the Child Tax Credit is sometimes refundable!

·       Reduced Airfare Cost

o   This time we booked through a travel agent called Adoption Airfare.  They helped us find a good fare on Delta airlines.  It also helped that we were travelling in May, before summer break, not around the time of any national festivals, and narrowly dodging a large convention in Guangzhou.  We paid almost half as much as we did with Micah’s adoption.

·       Reduced Fees

o   Since we started Hannah’s adoption less than a year after Micah’s adoption, we got to take advantage of a number of savings.  Our home study only cost 1/10 of what it should have, we paid ½ as much on our dossier and authentication/certification fees, and we even got to lock in the prior year’s China Program Fee.  In all, we saved nearly $5000 compared with Micah’s adoption.

·       $700 – Marriott Credit Card Savings

o   Matt opened a Marriott credit card and received 70,000 promotional points.  It turns out you can stay at the China Hotel in Guangzhou for roughly 6 nights with that many points.  Incredibly, 6 nights was exactly the number of nights we needed to stay in Guangzhou.  We also took advantage of an option to upgrade to an executive suite for $50/day.  The upgrade included breakfast ($40/day typically), a larger room, and around the clock access to soda and snacks.  That was another big blessing on our trip.

Expected Cost	Actual Cost	Savings	Description
$0	-$3,000	$3,000	Additional Tax Refund
$5,965	$3,354	$2,611	Airfare
$2,000	$250	$1,750	Home Study
$15,000	$13,500	$1,500	China Program Fee
$3,000	$1,500	$1,500	Dossier Fee
$340	$140	$200	Authentication / Certification
$1,000	$300	$700	China Hotel (Marriott Card)
	Total Savings (God’s Provision)	$11,261

But God was not done there.  There was still a large sum of money that needed to paid and our savings account was nearly dry.  So, Deanna and I sat down and wrote out our support letter.  With humble hearts we sent it out in February and then waited.  The first $1500 trickled in and then there was a long lull.  Would God be faithful to provide?  Certainly He was. 

All in all, 44 people from all walks of life gave $16,702 of their hard-earned money to us so we could bring Hannah home.  Part of that money was a matching grant provided by the Open Hearts, Open Homes ministry at our church Bethany Baptist.  An additional $5000 was donated by Matt’s employer through an adoption credit.  The money that came in kept our bank account afloat and gave us enough reserve to pay for Hannah’s surgery in late 2015.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who contributed.  You certainly acted as God’s hands and feet and we thank God for you!

Description	Fee Amount	Reimbursed Amount	Total Out of Pocket
Home Study Update	$250	$250	$0
Fingerprinting	$132	$132	$0
Holt International Application Fee	$300	$0	$300
Dossier Fee	$1,500	$1,500	$0
China Program Fee	$13,500	$13,500	$0
USCIS	$720	$720	$0
Document Authentication / Certification	$141	$0	$141
Postage and Copies	$173	$0	$173
International Airfare	$3,354	$3,269	$85
Travel Insurance	$235	$0	$235
In-Country Airfare, Hotel in Nanchang, and Transfers	$1,731	$1,731	$0
Visa Application	$350	$350	$0
Hotel in Guangzhou	$300	$0	$300
Food / Souveniers / Other	$2,272	$0	$2,272
Total Expense	$24,958	$21,452	$3,506